Collapses Involving Lightweight Structures

There are many inherent weaknesses involving structures constructed with lightweight wooden "I" beams, trusses and other lightweight components. What specific problems can their failure cause? How much risk is involved for firefighters, who enter these structures?

-They fail rapidly and without warning while under attack by fire. Sometimes in less than four minutes.

-A relatively stable situation can become a deadly one in minutes.

-Failures can occur in unburned portions of the building, injuring or killing unsuspecting firefighters conducting primary searches.

-Every construction contractor and component manufacturer seems to know this type of construction is deadly to firefighters, but nothing has been done to eliminate or change this type of construction.

Lightweight building components are both deadly and dangerous. Firefighters without a doubt know this. But they also have to realize that the Incident Commander (IC) must balance risk versus reward. But all you code writers, building inspectors, engineers and manufacturers should also weight the risks versus rewards. Are Firefighters lives a fair trade off for saving a few bucks on construction overhead? NOT A SNOWBALLS CHANCE IN HELL!!!!! Their comparison should include at what risk are they placing Firefighters lives versus what they have to gain by saving a few bucks.

Should firefighters leave a structure once everyone inside is evacuated? Thousands of times a day, fire departments across the country respond to fires involving lightweight construction. They are most often routine investigations where the fire has already been suppressed or is handled by the responding units. The ideal situation would be that when a company is operating inside one of these structures and conditions change for the worse, firefighters see the deterioration of the situation and withdrawal from it and go to an exterior attack. Conditions can change in a matter of seconds. But when conditions change without notice and a firefighter is injured or killed, is the IC responsible? Many of you would say yes. But if you have never commanded a fire scene involving the lives of several individuals, then you must realize that the IC has only SECONDS to make decisions. These decisions may have only been seconds in the making, but lawyers and judges have a lifetime to dissect. Criticism is easy. Especially for those who have never had to make such drastic and quick decisions. And after a call, all the armchair IC's, jump on the bandwagon and start saying, "I would have done this way", or "What the hell was the Chief thinking? I would have placed the apparatus on the other side of the building." Anyone can analyze the decisions of the IC (hindsight is always 20/20) and proclaim proper actions, but they don't realize that the IC had only seconds. They have minutes, hours, and even days to think it over.

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